The Nine Faces of Natz
by LonelyStar and GoldenDragon
Summary: Akron has been defeated, and our heroes are celebrating. At least they are until Natalie's new spell goes wrong, and she is split into many different bodies. Now, Matt and Lance have to return each part of Natz to the place that she did the spell in the first place and undo it, or else they may never see their friend again...
1. The Spell

The Nine Faces of Natz

**This takes place directly after Epic Battle Fantasy 3. And if the characters seem tragically misinformed about things, or do something incredibly stupid, well, that's what they're like in the games. The plot of Epic Battle Fantasy 3 comes about because they make the supremely idiotic move of poking a chained, and obviously evil demon lord, when any sensible person would have stayed back.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Epic Battle Fantasy. **

Chapter One: The Spell

Matt, Natalie and Lance were very happy. They had defeated Akron, saved the world, and got their powers back at the same time. As they chatted about their victory, they returned to the town, not even stopping to battle the various monsters hanging around the volcano, desert, glacier, lake, and forest biomes. They went straight to the town, where lived many people they could tell about their exploit. As they came through the dungeons into safe lands, they were excited and conversing about what their next adventure might be

A man with long blonde hair, pirate clothes, and a sword half as long as he was said: "We did a zombie monster, a neo-Nazi, and now a godlike...Demon-thing. Maybe we'll top that next time. Maybe the boss'll be God himself!"

Another man with reddish-brown hair, military clothing, and a very large gun, told him: "Please watch what you say about me, Matt. I am not a Nazi, and never was. I simply wished for peace, which is hard to come by in a devastated world. But you make a good point. So far, the bosses have been increasing in strength. So, maybe it will be God."

Natalie, or "Natz" for short, pouted. "Aw, Lance. Do we have to fight God? Isn't he the one that's keeping the universe from blowing up or something?"

Lance replied: "Not quite. He was the one who blew it up in the first place, creating the universe we know."

Their conversation continued into the inn, where they were to spend the night. The inn was a dingy, ramshackle place, with some rough wooden tables, hungover customers, and a small room off to the side with some beds. It never looked very clean, but a bed is a place to rest and recover however the sheets are done, and the trio were looking forward to it. It was also the _only _place to spend the night.

What grabbed their attention, though, was the new customer. He was an old man, and he looked like a wizard. When I say "He looked like a wizard" what I mean is that he was wearing long, midnight-blue robes with strange, occult symbols on them, pentagrams, five-pointed stars, stars of David, crescent moons, other, unrecognized symbols, and a few Treble Clefs, had a long, pointy hat of the same color and decoration, was carrying a long wooden staff, taller than he was, which was pretty hard to achieve, with a knob on the end, and had long gray hair and beard that went down to his chest. Which the party took to mean that he was a powerful magic user, maybe with a quest.

They approached him, and Matt spoke.

"Is there anything you need done?"

The man nodded yes and said: "I need spell components. If you could get me some Dark Matter, a Pearl, a Sad Statue, a Red Potion, some Gold, Talismans, Dark Runes, and a Diamond, I can teach you a powerful spell."

The components were easy enough to get. They were at the store in town, and though they cost much, the party had much to spend after their adventures. They were able to get what he wanted, though they ran out of cash and had to go fight some monsters in the Volcano to get some of the money to buy all of the stuff that he wanted. But in the end, they got it done, and returned with the components. He said:

"Ah, excellent! Now I can cast that spell! And, as promised, I will teach the young mage you have a powerful and useful spell." He then beckoned for Natalie to follow him, but when the boys started to come with her, he told them to stay back. "This is for her and me alone" he said.

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He took Natalie into a clearing in the forest, which she hadn't known existed before he told her about it. He told her: "Now, we are alone. It is time for me to impart the knowledge of the Spell of Splitting, which splits you into many different bodies, each of which you control."

Natz paid great attention. This looked to be a useful spell. It could allow her to train in many different ways at once! She'd be many times as powerful! Unfortunately, her dreams of outstripping her companions many times over were somewhat crushed when he continued: "Each of your copies has only a fraction of your power. How much it has depends on how many clones you make. For example, if you make split into five, each body will have one-fifth of of your original power, and if you split into two, each part will have one half."

'Oh well.' She thought. 'It will be great for learning other things, and not all we do is fighting, despite Matt and Lance's insistence on the contrary.'

Not knowing Natalie's inner thoughts, the man continued. "Now, here's what you do. First, you inscribe the ground with your magic circle. Do it once with your finger, and once with each of your staffs."

He then proceeded to, with his finger, scratch into the ground a complicated pattern inside a circle as big as the clearing, involving a five-pointed star and some runes. He then dug it deeper with his staff, and then swapped staffs and did it again, until he'd apparently used them all. He then walked to the middle of the circle, with the clothes and staff that he had been wearing when the party had encountered him, and sang an incantation.

_Is Mian Liom Go Mbeadh Nios Mo De Som, Scoilte Ag Seal I Gcomhlachtai Ar Leith, Ceangailte Ag Aigne, Riamh Dom. Five._

While he was saying the incantation, a glowing white mist had been rising around him. When he finished, the mist began swirling around him clockwise, and around the five points of the star. The circle glowed as the mist began whirling faster and faster around these points, and congealing near them until there was none of the mist anywhere else, and on the points and center it was a solid white light. Then, suddenly, the light in the center collapsed inward, revealing that there was nothing within, while the lights on the points exploded outward, revealing five people, identical to the original wizard, though wearing robes of differing colors, standing on each point of the five-pointed star. The one in the midnight-blue robes left his point and approached her. He said:

"This is a demonstration of the spell. Each of these bodies is mine, and are each controlled by one consciousness. Each has one-fifth the power I would have were I not split. You are not limited to just five bodies. Five was simply the number of outfits I had available at the moment. To change the number you split into, simply change the number at the end of the incantation, and change the number of points on your star. To reverse the spell, simply do it backwards, like this."

Each of the wizard's clones walked back onto the points that they were on, and said in unison:

_.eviF. moD hmaiR ,engiA gA etliagnaeC ,htieL rA iathcalhmocG I laeS gA etliocS ,moS eD soiN hdaebM oG moiL naiM sI_

As he (they?) was speaking the backwards incantation, the white mist rose again, and again in the same way covered the points of the star, and in the same way coalesced around those five points and the center, spun counterclockwise around them, faster and faster until it was a mass of white light, and then at the five points it imploded, revealing that the copies had disappeared, and exploded outward at the center, revealing the wizard as he was normally. He stepped out from the circle and said:

"_Mo Seal Os A Chionn, Scith Anois."_

The seal then depowered, reverting to just a load of fancy scratches on the ground. He walked next to Natz and said to her: "Now you know how it is done. Do you wish for me to teach you it magically, so you couldn't forget it even if you tried?"

She told him: "Yes, I would. And another thing, why is how many clones you produce limited by the number of outfits?"

The old wizard replied: "So that you have enough for all. You would not like the alternative. Got my message?"

She got the message and did not pursue the subject. Continuing on, the wizard said: "Okay. Here's the spell, that you can use ability points to get at any time you have enough."

Then, a searing feeling invaded Natalie's mind. She saw herself doing the spell, and the words of the incantation were written as if in white fire before her eyes. In her mind's eye, she saw herself drag her finger across a clearing, in a circle. She saw her finger create a star, the same as the wizard used. This part of the vision repeated nine times, each with a different number of points to the star. She also just knew that if she wanted an eleven-pointed star, she could get that too. She then saw herself scratch it deeper with all of her staffs, and as she wrote the symbol she saw it fill with the white energy of the spell. She saw her body walk in the center, and do the incantation. Then her mind went black, and after that she saw the world through twelve eyes. After that, she returned to reality.

The wizard was waiting when she got over with the vision-teaching, and he had something to say. "The magic circle will stay, and cannot be erased until you say "_ Mo Seal Os A Chionn, Scith Anois."_ It will go into a sort-of dormancy after a while and you have to use the phrase: "_Duisigh an seala, mar is ga dom an litrithe_" to reawaken it. You can use that same magic circle to undo the spell after you're done. And if the spellforce exhibits a color other than white, the spell has gone wrong, and use the word "Finis" to end it."

Natz nodded, thanked him, and ran off to tell her friends and fellow adventurers about the cool new spell she learned.

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Natz ran as fast as she could through the forest and into the town inn. She found both Matt and Lance sitting on their beds, talking about stuff, and she rushed into their room, eager to tell them about what she'd learned. When they saw her, they stopped their conversation, and looked at her, awaiting the story. Matt spoke first. "Okay, Natz, tell. What happened with that guy?" Matt was the enthusiastic one of the party. He tended to be a eager adventurer, but did not tend to care much for anyone else's property, and was not all too bright. He made up for that with his vast knowledge of how to cut his opponents into tiny bits.

Lance didn't say anything, but his expression made it all to clear that he wished to hear the story, too. Lance had joined their party a while ago, after he'd tried to take over the world, and Matt and Natz had blown up his tank. He tended to be the practical one of the party.

Natalie was a mage. She used different staffs to channel her spells and heal the party, as well as to hurt her opponents with the elemental equivalent of everything but the kitchen sink. She had bright orange-red hair that spilled over her quite well-endowed chest. She took a deep breath, and explained, "That guy taught me a spell for splitting into different numbers of bodies. It looked pretty powerful, and _so_ cool! I'm going to go try it tomorrow!"

Matt smiled. "Cool, let me see!"

Natz laughed and said: "Tomorrow, I'll test it out. You can see it then."

Lance chimed in. "Seeing your new spell would be nice. We could test it out, see what it would be good for."

Natz smiled. "That is so cool. I am _so _looking forward to that!"

Lance got up and looked out the window and told the others: "It's getting dark. We'd better go to bed. This spell sound pretty tough. You'd want to be sharp when you do it."

The others nodded assent, and carefully didn't look as Natalie undressed and crawled into bed. She then proceeded to put her pillow over her eyes while the boys did the same.

"G'night!" Matt called as he pulled the covers over his head

"Good night" answered Lance as he closed his eyes.

"Sleep well!" muttered Natalie as she put her pillow back under her head, found out that she was now so tired, and dropped off to sleep. Tomorrow would be a crazy day.

**Author's note: Please tell me if I've made Natalie a Mary Sue and I'll try to fix it. All the incantation words are Irish and from Google translate, so please tell me if I've got them wrong. Reviews and constructive criticism welcome, but flames will be ignored unless it's night, in which case I will use them for a light source so that I can continue writing this thing. So long until the next chapter.**


	2. Accidents Happen

**Well, here's chapter two. Sorry about the lateness, I had a hard time getting a proofread, and then got temporarily locked out of my account.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Epic Battle Fantasy.**

Chapter Two

Accidents Happen

Natalie woke up. Last, as usual. She opened her sky-blue eyes, yawned, stretched, and sat up, keeping the covers over her. Matt and Lance were already up, dressed, and looking at her expectantly. She looked at the sunlight streaming in. She didn't think that she was _that_ late. The boys only kept watch like that when she'd been sleeping in much more than usual. So why were they... oh. The spell. She'd forgotten. Now that she was up, she turned her glare on her teammates, warning them that they'd better look away or else. Or else what? Nobody knows, and quite frankly nobody really wants to find out. Matt and Lance turned away, and she picked out her dress from her magic hyperspace wardrobe. She decided on her balanced-stats one, red and a little lacy. It went rather well with her hair. She said to her teammates: "Okay, you can turn around now." They turned around, and Matt beckoned for her to get her lazy rear out of bed and get on with things so that she could do that spell. She ran out with them, looking for a clearing in which to do the spell.

The place chosen had to be out of the way. She didn't want anyone distracting her while she was doing the spell, and mess it up. It had to be big enough for the circle to fit, and it had to be somewhere that she could be sure that there were no monsters. It had to be accessible, for obvious reasons. The clearing in the forest wouldn't work, because that wizard had claimed it as his own, as he explained to them why they couldn't do the spell there. They couldn't find one at Rock Lake, because there was too little dry ground. The glacier wouldn't do, as people on skis tended to fly by the remote places at the most inconvenient times, and despite Matt's suggestion that they just scare away the skiers, Natalie didn't want to hurt something that wasn't a monster. Matt just sighed, shrugged his shoulders, and went with her. They then entered the Kitten Ruins.

The Kitten Ruins were once part of a Kingdom, the Kitten Kingdom, of the Legless Cats, who were, well, exactly what it says on the tin. Cats without arms or legs. Nobody knew how they had built anything, or carried things, but these no-legs cats were a common sight. Some of them had even joined the army. Now, though, the Kitten Ruins were just an archeological place, one of those relics from ancient times that always contain carvings that depict valuable historical things from their culture, like those weird ancient monoliths that could shoot lasers and heal themselves. But still, behind a sandworm, was a valley that looked as though it could be used. But they had to fight the sandworm first. So, they got ready for battle.

The first order of business was for Lance to scan the thing with his scanner. That would reveal its weaknesses to everyone, and tell them what spells, shots, and bushido to use. Oh, and maybe a limit break or two. They remembered the Sandworm from their previous adventures, and it was nasty. And it had poisonous blood. They would not be eating anything from it in a hurry. They tried not to repeat their mistakes.

But now, for the battle. Both the Sandworm's head and tail were in the fight, and both had to be taken out separately. Owing to the Sandworm's weaknesses, Lance would be the least useful, so he'd do the tail, and scan for weaknesses.

Matt went first, using Legend, his most powerful Bushido, which consisted of his striking his enemy very hard multiple times. Natz used Lucky Star, her non-elemental attack. Until Lance scanned the beast, it was best to not even try to get on the good side of the Sandworm's weaknesses. Lance then proceeded to scan the thing, and found out its weaknesses: ice and water.

The sandworm attacked by striking Lance with its spikes. Though it hurt, Lance was one of the three who fought and won against a godlike Eldritch Abomination. It wouldn't kill him.

When Matt's turn came, he switched swords. His new sword, called 'Blizzard' was ice element and boosted his ice attacks. It came to Natalie to actually attack the fool thing. And she did, with her 'iceberg' spell. Lance used a Bomb element attack, Airstrike, which sometimes strikes everyone with small bombs, sometimes one with a big one, and sometimes strikes everyone with a huge, black missile that Lance liked to call Oblivion. This time it was the one big bomb.

When the Sandworm attacked, it did so by vomiting out a poisonous green substance, that was both disgusting and deadly. And so, after Matt attacked, it fell to Natz to Purify the party, with a spell. Throughout the battle, she did this pretty often. Lance used his Airstrike one-fourth the time, and simple attacking with his gunblade Deep Blue the other ¾. It was a rather hard battle, but the three in the end prevailed, and passed into the valley.

It was moderately large, and the ground was sandy. Three walls were natural rock formation, and the fourth wall was made out of cream-colored bricks, a deep contrast to the dark brown of the natural formations, placed by the former residents of the Kitten Ruins. Perfect. Natz told the boys: "Okay. I'm going to split myself into nine bodies. They will appear on the points of the spell, and if not, I've done something wrong."

Natalie began the spell.

Bringing to the forefront of her mind the sequence taught to her by the wizard, she made the circle, dragging her finger on the ground. She had nine outfits, so the star inside had nine points. When that was finished, she drew in the runes. Runes for change, runes for anchoring. Runes of power. Runes of splitting, runes of keeping together. One rune she drew in each point of the star was the one that meant her, Natalie. She took her crystal staff and drew it deeper, swapped staves to her Dreamcatcher staff and drew it even deeper, then to her staff of accuracy, her Flameheart, her Arctic Wind, and other staffs the names of which she had forgotten, drew the seal in ever deeper in the sandy ground.

She walked to center of the spell-seal, took a deep breath, and ever so slowly so as not to mispronounce it, incanted:

"_Is Mian...Liom Go Mbeadh Nios Mo De Som,... Scoilte Ag Seal I… Gcomhlachtai Ar Leith, Ceangailte Ag Aigne, Riamh Dam."_

She'd done something wrong. The spellforce was flashing different colors. But she noticed it too late. Before anything but the light had time to register, she'd spoken the last word:

"_Nine."_

Lance's POV

Something had gone wrong. Lance knew it. The sign she'd told them about? There. Other weird things? There. After she'd spoken the last word of the incantation, all the colors of the rainbow swirled around her. The many-colored mist spun faster and faster until it was one multicolor ball. Around each of the points, the same thing happened. And then, the cocoon in the center imploded, revealing nothing. And the cocoons on the points launched themselves in many different directions. Natz had said that if the duplicates did not appear on the points, something was very wrong. It seemed that that spell was more dangerous than it first appeared. Would they never see their mage again?

Beside him was the ashen-faced form of Matt. While Matt might be most enthusiastic about adventuring and battling, he really did care about his teammates, and the thought that Natz might be gone forever was very scary.

Wait. Time to think. With Natalie no longer here, it was his turn to be the sensible one. It was time for him to think it out. This might be hard. So, what did the balls of light on the corners represent? Lance sat down on the sandy ground, leaned against the fourth wall of the valley, and thought long and hard about this. It wasn't easy. He had plenty of time, though. It'd be hours until Matt snapped out of his heroic B.S.O.D.. He focused on the task at hand. What could those balls of light be?

Magic gathering there to receive the split bodies? Maybe they formed around where the clones would be? But, the magic covering Natz had imploded. Not dissipated into those magic spheres.

Well, what if the procedure for the spell was that the ball in the middle that surrounded her to implode, and the others either implode or explode to reveal the clones? The balls hadn't dissipated. They'd shot off to somewhere. So, what if Natz was scattered everywhere and it was up to them to rescue her? It was a chance. Done thinking, Lance looked up and around. The sun was much farther west than it had been during the spell. Several hours had passed. And Matt was still ashen-faced, looking toward the spot Natz last stood, still deep in a heroic B.S.O.D.

Lance walked up to him and grabbed his arm. "Matt," he said. "There is a chance that Natalie was not killed when her spell backfired. Return to the inn with me, and I'll tell you there."

Matt looked startled for an instant, and then allowed himself to be led along.

They passed through all the areas quickly, reaching the town. Matt ran along behind, never saying anything, until they reached the town, and the inn in the town.

When they reached the inn and got into their rooms, Matt sat down and faced Lance.

"Okay, Lance," he said "what happened to Natz?"

Lance also sat down, and began: "Well, it is likely that what the spell was supposed to do was not divide the middle ball of magic among the rest, like what I had assumed, but to implode, and then the ones on the points reveal the clones. And, the balls on the points were blasted away. So, the clones might have been thrown somewhere, and we need to go find them."

The sudden change in Matt nearly threw Lance off balance. Suddenly, there was sitting before him the eager adventurer, ready to go save another world, or at least another teammate, and not the near-catatonic shell that had replaced him after Natalie supposedly died.

"Okay," Matt said, "Here's what we do. They look like they were blasted with much force away, so we'll go to the lands beyond the Volcano and Town. You know, the Kitten Kingdom, that one spooky forest, all the rest? Let's search out there first." Lance nodded his agreement, and they got up and walked out of the room into the main area of the inn, where they stocked up on healing foods to help carry them through any fights they might meet, especially purification and healing items, as their white-magic master was no longer with them.

Exiting the inn, they ran up to a random girl, Anna, and Matt asked her where they could get passage out of there. Anna replied "Now that the Volcano has stopped erupting, ships are stopping at Rock Lake which allow passage to the far lands."

Thanking Anna, 2/3 of the party of adventurers that had defeated Akron went to the crystal that allowed for teleportation to its fellows, and used it to get to Rock Lake quickly.

Once there, they went to the docks, where sure enough, there were some ships. They went up to the captain of one of them, and asked him where he was going. He said:

"To the Kitten Kingdom, sirs. I am accepting passengers, if you wish to go."

Matt nodded his assent. The captain beckoned them onto his ship, and they set sail for the far away lands they had left behind when they were catapulted by Akron into the Town.

When the boat got under way, Lance Matt stood at the bow of the ship. A wind from behind filled the sails and made the ship go on as smooth as anything, through the blue, sparkling waters of Rock Lake. He could see land on the other side, though it was far enough away that he couldn't make out any details. This was the land where Natz was in, in her many fragments. It was his job to put them back together, and he would do this job to the best of his ability. After all, wasn't that what adventurers did?

He was getting his mage back. All of her.

**Was that good? Please tell me! Flames will still be ignored unless they start burning the house down, in which case I will throw water over them. Constructive criticism still welcome! For those who don't know B.S.O.D. = Blue Screen Of Death. It's the thing that comes up when your computer has an error and stops working.**


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